Code: Retribution
by WritingwithGusto
Summary: When XANA pushes Jeremie just a little too far, Jeremie decides to push right back...


**So, with the fact that I've recently binge-watched all of Season 1 of this show, I rekindled my love for this show and these characters. And as such, I decided to write a little thing to sate my inner Jerlita Shipper. Fair warning, side effects may include excitement, terror, and overall feeling of awesomeness. Results may vary.**

 **Anyways, I've wasted enough of your time with my silly shenanigans. Onto the fic.**

* * *

"Aelita! Get out of there!"

Jeremie's hands tensed up, as he typed in panic, trying to find a trick to keep her safe. She was currently alone in the Desert Sector, and with William no less. The others had done what they could to protect her, but now she was alone with him.

"Jeremie, it will be okay," he heard her say through his headset, "Odd should be on his way."

"He is, but what could possibly be keeping him!?"

In his head, Jeremie's mind was racing at a speed beyond anything he could keep up with. Worry flooded his system as he watched William approach, knowing what would come if he were to strike her.

And to make things worse, both Ulrich and Yumi weren't there to protect her.

"A-Aelita, I'll try to pull you out of there," he said out of impulse more than anything else, "We can win this battle another time!"

"No, Jeremie," she told him, "I have to fight."

"But Aeli-"

"I'll be fine. I promise."

For a moment, Jeremie felt his breathing go normal again. Maybe Aelita was right, and he was worrying over nothing. Aelita could usually take care of herself, and if he was lucky, Odd would be here in a few seconds.

In fact, if there was anything to be worried about, it would be what had happened to Yumi and Ulrich. _'They should be back by now'_ he thought, _'I wonder what's keeping them.'_

"Aelita, where are you?" he asked.

"I managed to escape for a bit. Hopefully I can make it in time."

Relief filled his system to hear that she was safe. He decided he had plenty of time to check. Heading to the elevator and down to the scanning room, he decided to see what was taking his friends so long.

And when he got down there… he saw something terrible.

Yumi and Ulrich were both on the ground, and in pain. There were visible bruises on them, and what even seemed to be blood. It was almost as if they had taken damage between the virtualization and the materialization.

"Wait…"

Ulrich heard him, and looked up, the pain visible on his face. "Jeremie, it looks like there was one last thing Xana slipped in while we weren't looking…"

"What happened?" he asked in desperation. Ulrich just looked over to Yumi, and then down to the ground. "By the looks of it, any damage we take on Lyoko carries over to our human forms. And this time, it's worse than anything we've ever felt."

Jeremie's blood seemed to run cold the moment he heard that.

' _But if they get hurt in the real world…'_ He thought slowly, _'Then… Aelita could get hurt… She could possibly even die…'_

He clenched his fists, rage the only thing that was in his mind at that moment. The thought of Aelita in pain just seemed to resonate with him, and he could feel all logic draining from his mind. The idea that could happen to Aelita… his _angel_ … made whatever logical conclusion fade.

He felt so helpless to do anything. And he was sick of that. He couldn't just stand by and let Aelita get hurt. He couldn't just wait and hope for Odd to make it in time. He was done waiting, and he was done standing by.

' _No more feeling useless,'_ he thought, his mental voice taking a tone of rage, _'It's time to stand up and do something about it!'_

"Guys… wait here," Jeremie told them, his tone low, but filled with determination, "Odd will be here in a bit to take you to the infirmary."

"But Jer, what about Aelita," Yumi jumped in the conversation, "She needs help."

He turned his back to both of them, and as he turned back in the elevator, they could see something in his eyes. They had never seen that look on his face.

"Help is on the way."

* * *

Odd had finally made it to the factory, after having to deal with the likes of detention, Jim, and Sissi all in the same afternoon. It took a lot longer than he would have liked, but finally he was here.

As the elevator door opened, he was shown the supercomputer room first, but Jeremie was nowhere to be found. "What the heck," he asked in confusion, "Where is he?"

Then, as he approached the supercomputer, he noticed what looked like a sticky note on the screen. Pulling it off, he saw what it read.

 _Odd, don't touch anything until I get back. Ulrich and Yumi are down in the scanner room, and they need your help._

 _Jeremie_

Odd wasn't too sure what to think about that, but then, something on the screen caught his eye. Taking a closer look, he noticed something strange on the screen.

It looked like an I.D Card, but not one that he recognized. Had Jeremy made a new one in his free time?

 _Transfer: Jeremie_

Odd nearly jumped, as the message appeared on the screen. But it was at that moment he realized what was going on.

 _Scanner: Jeremie_

"So, he's going to fight," Odd said slowly, "Whatever the hell is going on, it must be big."

 _Virtualization_

"Jeremie, are you there," Odd heard come from the headset. He took it off of the keyboard, and told her "Uh… sorry, but he's not here. Odd speaking."

"Odd," Aelita questioned, "Where is Jeremie?"

Odd remained silent for a moment, as he noticed one more message pop up on the screen.

"Odd please, where is Jeremie," she asked again, breaking him out of his trance, "I need help. William found me, and he's on my trail."

"Um… by the looks of it, you might be seeing him soon enough."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll understand," Odd told her, looking at the message one last time. It was only two simple words, and yet it helped him to know that something was about to go down.

And what were these two words?

 _Code: Retribution_

* * *

Aelita stepped back, trying to avoid getting struck by William. Right now, she was the only other one on Lyoko, and that had her worried. What was taking Odd so long?

"Super Smoke!"

Without warning, William vanished, and she knew where this was going. After the cloud of smoke had faded, she used her wings to fly up out of the way. But it did not work out as well as she would have hoped. William's blade grazed her side, and she felt a twinge of pain run through her.

"A nice effort," she heard William say from the ground, "But ultimately fruitless." And without another word, he swung his blade, releasing an energy slash in her direction. She just barely avoided it, but she could see that he was winding up for another strike.

Aelita knew she could fly for only so long, and she was sure that if she took one more hit, she would be taken down, and then William was free to do whatever he pleased (or rather, whatever XANA pleased). She could not have that…

"This is the end!"

As he swung the blade, her flying just ran out, and the slash just missed her by the skin of her teeth. But she was sure the next one wouldn't miss. She fell flat on her back, and when she got up, he was swinging one last time. This would be it if she didn't do something…

"Not gonna happen!"

Without warning, a massive chunk of the ground in front of her rose up, as if to protect her. The slash was nullified, and as the ground returned to its original position, she could see that William was baffled.

And Aelita was similarly confused.

"You're not going to touch her," she heard a soothing voice say, "You're not going to hurt her. Not while I'm around." Hearing this shocked her, because she knew this voice so well. But it couldn't be him, could it?

Well, looking back, she got her answer.

There, before her, stood Jeremie. But it was not the same Jeremie she was used to.

His normal red shirt had been turned into a hoodie, which he was wearing the hood up for, making him look a bit menacing. His glasses were smaller, and almost looked like a targeting visor, and his pants had changed to cargo pants. Along with that, on his hands and feet were armored gauntlets and boots, each one a faded steel tone, with golden filigree.

In all honesty, he looked like a warrior.

"Oh how cute," William declared, "Jeremie decided to show his face in Lyoko. That will make this all the more satisfying when I destroy her." Normally, that would probably make anyone else in the group worried, or at least, a little unnerved. But with Jeremie, his reaction was obvious.

"Lay one hand on her," he threatened, a sort of venom laced in his voice, "And the only satisfaction of today will be when I rip you limb from limb."

William gave a look of shock to hear the group's tactician so enraged, but the one who was really baffled was Aelita. She had never seen Jeremie's Lyoko form, and she remembered him saying that he was not going to be virtualized again. So why was he here? And more importantly, why was he so angry?

The two glared at each other, neither daring to make a move, but looking ready to destroy each other. There was tension in the air that was so thick it could be cut with a knife…

"Super Smoke!"

William vanished, and reappeared right behind Jeremie, who did not move in the slightest. When William appeared again, he swung his blade, and Aelita was in fear that he would get hurt.

But before William could even swing, the ground beneath him flew up in the air, catching the XANA-possessed warrior off-guard. Immediately after, Jeremie stomped on the ground, and a piece of a cliff came off and slammed right into William, sending him flying back.

"Not so much fun when you're on the receiving end, is it?" Jeremie called out, a hint of smugness in his tone. He looked back to Aelita, who was still a little out of her wits at all of this. "Head to the tower, Aelita," he told her, "I'll keep William busy."

"Jeremie…"

"I'll explain it all later. Just go."

Aelita just looked at him in shock. After a moment, she regained her composure and nodded, returning to her feet and running out to the tower.

* * *

"Jeez, since when has Einstein been able to do stuff like that?"

Back in the real world, Ulrich and Yumi had decided to stay in spite of their wounds, and had a front row seat to Jeremie and William's fight. The screen showed the two both throwing heavy strikes, with William swinging that massive sword of his, and Jeremie using whatever power he had over the land.

"Last time I checked, Jeremie never looked like that in Lyoko," Ulrich pointed out, "When did he have the time to make this?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Odd added in, "But whatever the case, he seems to be doing pretty good."

They watched as William used his Super Smoke ability, actually getting behind Jeremy for a moment. It looked like he had advantage, but as soon as he swung, Jeremy ducked down and punched the ground, which caused the ground underneath William to catapult him into one of the cliffs away from the tower.

"Holy hell, it's like he's Earthbending!" Odd exclaimed, "Looks like Aelita's in good hands."

"Yeah. But what I want to know is what caused this change," Yumi said, "What made Jeremie want to go in and fight?"

* * *

"You won't hurt Aelita!"

With rage in his eyes, Jeremie ran straight to William, and hit him straight with a superman punch from his armored hand. The force behind it was surprising (especially given Jeremie's wiry frame), but William tried to remain unfazed, retaliating with a punch of his own.

Though surprisingly enough, the little tactician took it rather well, only reeling back a little bit.

"Is that all you've got," Jeremie asked, "Because if so, then this should be easy." Immediately after saying this, William laughed and told the smaller warrior, "This isn't even close to my best," William declared, "I've been holding back to keep you here the whole time."

Jeremie's expression conveyed confusion, and William just gave a malicious smirk. "Just look back, and all will make sense."

That placed fear deep into his mind, as he slowly looked behind him, in the direction of the tower. And when he looked back, his fear was justified.

"The Scyphozoa."

One of Xana's more dangerous monsters was back, and was already working its magic on Aelita. He was draining her memory as an army of Bloks and Tarantulas watching on, and Jeremie could only stand and watch, as William attempted to strike him down while distracted.

He looked back just in time to keep his head from being cleaved off, and dodged out of the way. William continued to attempt strikes, but Jeremie just continued to dodge, in hopes of getting to Aelita in time.

"Super Smoke!"

He knew what that meant, but even so, this strike actually connected. He was just a second too slow, and was sent back a ways away. The pain could still be felt in his side, and he knew that he was close to losing, just from that one strike alone. And from this, worry started to fill his system.

"Give up, you weakling," he heard William say, "There is nothing you can do. You're no warrior, and there is no way you can win. And you really thought you could really save her?"

But as soon as he heard that, the worry transmuted into something else. Red seemed to flood his vision as he looked up at William, and animalistic thoughts filled his mind. He knew exactly what this feeling was…

It was _unyielding_ rage.

William raised his blade one more time, and Jeremie did not waste a second. He made a hand gesture, and the ground around William close up around him, trapping him in a prison of rock, unable to move his body at all.

With one problem out of the way, Jeremie let out a low growl, and focused on the ground right beneath the Scyphozoa. As he focused, images of Aelita entered his head, and made him even angrier. He didn't want to see her hurt, and he refused to let anything get in the way of that.

He would not let them hurt his angel.

The growl turned into a roar of anger, and two pieces of the ground shot upright, crushing the Scyphozoa between them. Its grip on Aelita died just as it did, and she fell to the ground, her consciousness returning to her in a few moments.

And as her senses returned to her, she heard what equated to a war cry, and saw spikes shoot up out of the ground and stab into many of the monsters around her. Then before she could even process this, she saw Jeremie run past her, and strike at the remaining enemies with the force of earth behind him.

"Get to the tower," he told her, before she could even ask what was going on, "I have a score to settle with these guys."

Aelita did not even question it for a moment, because she could hear the seriousness in his voice. There was no room for argument, so she did not argue. She just got up and ran into the tower.

And outside, Jeremie continued his onslaught on everything that was moving.

He was absolutely relentless, not giving the enemy any chance to retaliate. With his ability to control the earth beneath them, he struck down anything that even came close to the tower.

"Come on!" He yelled out, "You wanted to hurt her, and this is what you got! You called down the thunder, Xana!"

* * *

"'Called down the thunder'? Seriously, what's gotten into Einstein?"

Back in the real world, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi continued to watch as Jeremie ripped through the enemy numbers, destroying practically anything in his path. In all honesty, he didn't look anything like the Jeremie they were so used to.

This Jeremie was a stone-cold killer, and it was unbelievable to see such a shift.

"I guess it is true what they say," Odd said offhandedly, "It's always the small ones you have to worry about."

Both Yumi and Ulrich nodded in agreement. If this was anything to go by, then that statement rings true. They had never expected something like this from Jeremie, and yet here it was plain as day, destroying XANA monsters like they were nothing.

They knew by now that he was fighting for Aelita, and yet it still seemed like insane to think that he fought so much for her.

"Guys!"

Everyone jumped a little, as they heard Aelita's voice come through the headphones, and her face appear on the screen. "Don't scare us like that, Princess," Odd exclaimed, "You almost gave us a heart attack."

"Sorry," Aelita said, "It's just all so shocking. Jeremie's in Lyoko, and he's gone absolutely berserk against Xana's forces."

"Yea, we've noticed," Ulrich said, "It's like he's a totally different person."

"Yeah," Odd added in, "But now that the tower is deactivated, maybe we should stop him before he goes and does something dangerous."

"You're right. I'll launch the return to the past program, and Yumi, I need you to just press enter."

Yumi nodded, and waited a few moments, watching as the XANA Monsters actually seemed to be running away from him. It seems that he scared them so much that they were doing a hasty retreat. Even William, who had escaped his rock prison, and still had enough of a chance to fight, was fleeing on his Black Manta. There was nothing more to fight for now, and it was all thanks to Jeremie.

"You know, Aelita," Yumi said, looking at the pinkette with a smile, "When we get back, maybe you should talk to Jeremie about this. It seems like you might get an interesting answer if you do." But before Aelita could respond back, Yumi hit the Enter key.

"Return to the past now."

* * *

The time reversion went smoothly, and the issues caused by Xana were fixed. Ulrich and Yumi's injuries were healed, and no one besides the Lyoko Warriors remembered any of it. They were all safe and sound.

Meaning that for Aelita, there was only one part of the mission left to do.

Heading to Jeremie's room, she knocked on the door, and heard him say "Come in." She complied, and saw him sitting on his computer again, typing away. He looked back, and saw her standing there. "What's up?"

Aelita took a deep breath, and said "I would like to know what that was in Lyoko." It was so direct of a response, and Jeremie knew exactly what was talked about. He sighed just slightly, and told her "Close the door. This is something I want only you to hear."

She did as told, and Jeremie stood up, looking right at her. His blue eyes seemed to pierce into her green ones, and she could feel her heartbeat speeding up at this. With another sigh, he began to tell her what was going on.

"Aelita, I've been working on that program for a very long while," he admitted, "It was something special that I had hoped I would never need to unveil. But the day came that I did. Xana pushed me too far."

"What did he do?"

"He essentially threatened your life."

There was a brief silence between the two, before Jeremie sat back in his chair, and looked in her eyes again. "It's a special program I called 'Code Retribution'," he continued, "And it was meant to be a last resort if Xana ever hurt you guys.

"I was keeping this from you because I had not done extensive testing on it, and I hadn't completely implemented the code into the system. It was a one-shot program at that point, meant to give one person the abilities to control Lyoko's landscape, and use that to finish the job. But I had to use that one shot to stop William from hurting you. I knew I could have just waited for Odd, but I didn't want to waste a second."

Hearing that answered many of Aelita's questions. That explained why Jeremie looked like that, and why he could control the land around them. "That's absolutely amazing Jeremie," she told him with a smile, "How on earth did you come up with that?"

He looked away with an embarrassed smile, and said "I may have binge-watched 'Avatar the Last Airbender' while I was thinking of it."

She gave a light giggle at it, and decided to sit down on his bed. "Well, I think it was really amazing. But there is one question I have."

"Shoot."

"What do you mean he 'essentially threatened my life'?"

And there it was…

The definitive question.

Jeremie looked away for a moment, before walking over to the bed and sitting right next to Aelita. The look in his eyes conveyed anger and sadness, more than words could have. Aelita had never seen such emotion from him.

"When I went down to the scanner room, I found Ulrich and Yumi, both in pain," he told her slowly, "They told me that they materialized like that, and we realized that it was Xana's doing. He made it to where any damage we took on Lyoko would carry over to the real world. And that just made something inside of me snap…"

A brief pause came between them, as Jeremie looked back to her. Summoning up his courage, he grabbed the pinkette's hands and held them in his own. "Just the thought of you hurt made me lose it, Aelita," he said, "I didn't want to see you in pain. And then instinct took over, and I decided to launch the program. It was risky, but to me, any risk seemed worth it to keep you out of pain."

Words seemed to fail Aelita at this moment, as she looked deep into his eyes, and saw his same expression from Lyoko. Her heart felt like it was beating at a mile a minute, to know that Jeremie had gone so far as to do that for her.

She had paid attention to every word he said, and the ones that she remembered specifically was when he said that he had not extensively tested it. Jeremie was all about extensive testing, and this was something she knew by heart.

And that meant that he was risking much more than he let on. For all he knew, the code could have been incomplete, or the powers were bugged, or anything else.

"You were willing to do all of that for me," Aelita questioned. But looking deep into his eyes, any doubts she had were cleared.

"Of course I did," Jeremie affirmed, "I know it probably sounds cliché and such, but I would do anything for you. And I realize I haven't said it directly but… I really love you, Aelita." He looked down for a moment, realizing that he was just avoiding the issue. He had to just go for it. And if it ended badly, then at least he took the risk.

He gently placed his fingers on her chin, and placed his lips directly on hers. She seemed to melt at this, and just fall into the kiss naturally. It was short and sweet, all things considered, but he was glad that he finally did it.

When they separated, Aelita looked at him, happiness completely evident. "Jeremie, you're fantastic," she told him, holding his hands gently, "You did so much for today, and I really appreciate it. You were my knight in shining glasses."

Jeremie looked away for a moment, and smiled.

"And for the record," Aelita continued, "I really love you too."

The blonde's cheeks turned a shade of pink, and Aelita gave him another kiss on the cheek. "Thank you so much for everything."

"Anything for my angel."

She giggled, and stood up. "Well, I can see you're busy, so I guess I should maybe leave you to it. I'll see you later." Jeremie just looked to his computer, and she saw his expression change.

"Actually, I think this can wait," Jeremie said, "I can work on recreating the code another time."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

He stood up, and took her hand in his own. "Now, do you want to go for a walk?"

Aelita smiled. "That sounds great."

With nothing more to say, the two Lyoko Warriors headed out, hand in hand, and decided to enjoy some time together. Both were happier than they had been in a long while, and neither one had anything that they thought could ruin this.

And if XANA tried, Aelita at least knew how far Jeremie would go for her.


End file.
